A red-faced Labour council has unveiled a sculpture to the work of radio pioneer Marconi - but with no mention of the man himself after discovering his links to the Fascist Party.
Inventor Gugliemo Marconi has been cancelled on his own tribute in the shape of a 12ft high sculpture for making the world's first radio transmission over open sea.
The tribute for his work sending radio signals to the island of Flat Holm from the Vale was put on hold after campaigners revealed his involvement with Mussolini's Fascist Party in Italy in the years before the Second World War.
Now it has been unveiled as originally planned - but Marconi has been cancelled.
A spokesman for Labour-run Cardiff council admitted: "There will be no reference to Marconi on the sculpture."
Marconi successfully transmitted the first ever wireless messages to go over the sea from the island of Flat Holm four miles to Lavernock Point near Cardiff in 1897.
The morse slip reading "Are you ready?" was signed by Marconi as a major breakthrough in radio transmission.
Labour-run Cardiff council unveiled plans for a new sculpture depicting an old radio transmitter to be positioned on the Cardiff Bay Barrage.
The sculpture is part of a £645,000 National Lottery Heritage Fund award as part of the council's £1.1m funding for the island.
Designed by artist Glenn Davidson, the impressive structure is part of a collection of new art produced by the National Lottery Heritage Fund Project, "Flat Holm – A Walk Through Time," imputing £1.8million into transforming the island.
But it was reviewed after Marconi was revealed to be a senior member of the Italian Fascist Party and played a role in blocking Jews from membership of the Academy of Italy.
Marconi - who died in 1937 - has been remembered as a prodigy who took out a patent on wireless telegraphy in 1896, aged 22, and won the Nobel prize for physics in 1909.
But documents discovered in archives in Rome by researcher Annalisa Capristo were revealed in the Israel Monthly Review.
Marconi was also an enthusiastic supporter of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, which resulted in the deaths of many thousands of people.
He joined the Fascist Party in 1923, a year after Mussolini came to power, later becoming a member of the Fascist Grand Council.
In a lecture, he stated: "I reclaim the honour of being the first fascist in the field of radiotelegraphy, the first who acknowledged the utility of joining the electric rays in a bundle, as Mussolini was the first in the political field who acknowledged the necessity of merging all the healthy energies of the country into a bundle, for the greater greatness of Italy."
Documents unearthed in Rome 20 years ago exposed Mr Marconi as a clandestine but willing enforcer of Mussolini's campaign against Jews years before the persecution came into the open.
As head of the Academy of Italy, the Nobel prize winner blocked all Jewish candidates at the behest of the dictator at a time when the regime still denied having any religious prejudice.
Marconi wrote the letter "E" beside the names of Jewish scientists his colleagues had short-listed to become members of the academy. The Italian word for Jew is "Ebreo".
Despite their prominence in archaeology, mathematics and physics, not one Jew was allowed to join during Marconi's tenure, which started in 1930.
Amateur historian Dave Shipper, 94, an anti-racism campaigner who writes for Race Equality First in Cardiff, said: "Marconi was a brilliant inventor - there's no doubt about that. But he was also a fascist and that needs to be reflected in the story told about him.
"I'm not surprised that Cardiff council wasn't aware of his involvement with the Fascist Party and his victimisation of Jews. Publicity over the years about his inventions outnumbers revelations about his misdeeds by at least 1,000 to one."
The hardwood sculpture will sit on a concrete plinth after being approved by Cardiff Council despite the fascist row.
A Cardiff Council spokesperson said: “The unveiling of this sculpture marks a celebration of Cardiff and Flat Holm’s rich history. The island is just over four miles into the Bristol Channel but it has so many connections to the mainland and we want people to visit the island and explore our shared history.
“The work carried out by Marconi is just one small part of Flat Holm island’s fascinating history."
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